Catalog Search Results
Author
Appears on these lists
Description
In exuberant verse and stirring pictures, Patricia Hruby Powell and Christian Robinson create an extraordinary portrait of the passionate performer and civil rights advocate Josephine Baker, the woman who worked her way from the slums of St. Louis to the grandest stages in the world. Meticulously researched by both author and artist, Josephine's powerful story of struggle and triumph is an inspiration and a spectacle, just like the legend herself....
Author
Description
Everybody starts somewhere, and once upon a time Luigi Lemoncello was a twelve-year-old boy in a large family who dreamed of being a showman; he gets his first chance working for a famous barker at a summer carnival where a mysterious puzzle leads him and his friends on a treasure hunt.
Author
Description
Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College,...
Author
Appears on these lists
Formats
Description
American Ballet Theater soloist Misty Copeland encourages a young ballet student, with brown skin like her own, by telling her that she, too, had to learn basic steps and how to be graceful when she was starting out, and that some day, with practice and dedication, the little girl will become a firebird, too. Includes author's note about dancers who led her to find her voice.
Author
Appears on these lists
HERstory
Nashville Reads 2023: Celebrating Our Freedom to Read!
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
More Lists...
Nashville Reads 2023: Celebrating Our Freedom to Read!
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
More Lists...
Description
"Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey,...
Author
Formats
Description
"Winner of the Otherwise Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award. At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville, which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images. Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a "city of the future." They are gifted performers and hoodoo...
8) Farty Marty
Author
Description
Although Mary Jane Lemon loves her cat Marty, others are offended by the sounds and smells that come from his rear until Ms. Chen, a voice tutor, discovers that Marty's "audio output" is quite remarkable.
Author
Formats
Description
"Inspired by her powerful song of the same title, Look What You've Done delves into Tasha's journey of finding freedom in Jesus through life's twists and turns. Tasha takes readers through her early days in small town South Carolina, to her big breakthrough as background singer on stage with Katy Perry, to the mission field in Kenya and beyond. Across many countries and all her days, the truest constant in Tasha's life has been the presence of God...
11) Double platinum
Description
Diana Ross and Brandy star in this compelling story of a mother driven to reach the heights of superstardom at the cost of abandoning her only child.
12) Green book
Appears on list
Description
When Tony Lip, a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on The Green Book to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger, as well as unexpected humanity and humor, they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the...
Author
Formats
Description
From the beloved and bestselling actress, a book about her experiences filming Wild Oats in the Canary Islands - which brings forth memories of a past life on the lost continent of Atlantis. This is a terrific companion to the movie, telling the behind-the-scenes, over-the-top story of how the film came to be made, along with extraordinary new past-life recollections that Shirley experienced while on set. Print run 75,000.
Author
Description
"From the author of The Jewel of Medina, a moving and insightful novel based on the life of legendary performer and activist Josephine Baker, perfect for fans of The Paris Wife and Hidden Figures. Discover the fascinating and singular life story of Josephine Baker--actress, singer, dancer, Civil Rights activist, member of the French Resistance during WWII, and a woman dedicated to erasing prejudice and creating a more equitable world--in Josephine...
Description
A revealing four-part documentary series from writer/director W. Kamau Bell offering a deeply personal exploration of Bill Cosby's descent from "America's Dad" to an alleged sexual predator. Exploring the complex story of Cosby's life and work, Bell invites comedians, educators, journalists, and Cosby survivors to have a refreshingly candid, first-of-its-kind conversation about the man, his career, and his crimes. Bell takes an unfiltered look at...
17) A revolution in three acts: the radical vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge
Author
Formats
Description
"An African American who performed in blackface to challenge racial stereotypes; a woman whose song, "I Don't Care," became emblematic of the modern "New Woman"; and a female impersonator whose act was created to uphold the traditional values of American femininity. These stories are at the center of David Hajdu's new work of graphic nonfiction, which recounts the lives and careers of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge, three of the most...
Description
Take an unprecedented look at the intersection of African American women artists, politics and entertainment and hear the story of how six trailblazing performers - Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, Nina Simone, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier - changed American culture through their films, fashion, music, and politics.
19) Olio
Author
Description
"Part fact, part fiction, Tyehimba Jess's much anticipated second book weaves sonnet, song, and narrative to examine the lives of mostly unrecorded African American performers directly before and after the Civil War up to World War I. Olio is an effort to understand how they met, resisted, complicated, co-opted, and sometimes defeated attempts to minstrelize them,"--Amazon.com.
Author
Description
Since its inception as an African-American theater in 1934, the Apollo, and the thousands of entertainers who performed there, have led the way in the presentation of swing, bebop, rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk and hip-hop-along with the latest in dance and comedy. The Apollo has nurtured and featured thousands of artists, many of whom have become legends. The beauty they have given the world-their art-transcends the hatred, ignorance,...
In Interlibrary Loan
Didn't find what you need? Items not owned by Nashville can be requested from other Interlibrary Loan libraries to be delivered to your local library for pickup.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service. Submit Request